Strength Unbounded
by xmute S O U Lx
Summary: With no active Spirit detective, Koenma is searching the books, frantic in his search for a new one. But when Yusuke brings in a friend for some guidance, will Koenma be completely blown away by what he finds?
1. Prologue

**Strength Unbounded**

AU: *I do not own these characters or ideas, just the plot!*

**Prologue – Finding a Friend**

My life has never been a mystery to me. Always, since the day I was self-aware, I have known who I am and what my purpose is. I am Hitomi Takeashi, the second child of Rin and Seiji Takeashi, living in Sarayashiki District of Tokyo. I have always been extremely intelligent and studious, and I have grown like a flower whose only sustenance is learning. Someday, I believe my parents hope to see me as a university professor or perhaps a doctor. I have always been fragile physically, and fell ill often. Nobody expects much from me, not in that way. My mind is all I have. I am sixteen.

-=--=---=----=-----=-----=----=---=--=-

My school was a fine one. Sarayashiki High School was not much different than the junior high school there, especially not since Takanakasensei had been asked to take a position there. My first two years there, I was in a class with all the same people as I was in middle school. But my junior year, by some mistake, I was placed in a different class. I didn't know anyone there, although I'd heard of the loud ones that sat in back. Urameshi and Kuwabara were easy enough to pick out. They were always reading manga in class and talking over the teacher. I noticed that they never came to gym. I might have felt embarrassed, paying so much attention to them and never saying anything, but I didn't know anyone. I only noticed them because they were the closest things to acquaintances I had there.

Not that having friends or not having friends matters. I still maintained excellent grades and was already receiving offers from several prestigious universities, some out of country and continent. Even so, I yearned for my old friends, or at least wished that I could make new ones, but I heard what they said when they thought I wasn't listening.

"Have you seen Takeashisan, who used to be in class 1-A?"

"Ooh, the egghead? Yeah, she's so stuck up!"

"Thinks she's too good for us. Nyeh!"

Though the voices were faceless, they were enough for me to keep my silence. How could they know me without ever talking to me? And was that truly the way I showed myself to be? Whether it was or wasn't, I kept to myself. I didn't want to bother anyone, and nobody seemed to want to bother me. All that was perfectly fine, until the first time I got sick.

I woke up on a Monday morning with a terrible headache. I still got up and tried to get ready, but things just kept piling on top of each other. I started sneezing and coughing, and my stomach churned so badly that I even pushed away the waffles my mother made us for breakfast. She followed me as I made my way to the door, fully dressed and satchel in hand. My father sat at the kitchen table still, even though all three of us children had left it already. He sipped nonchalantly at his coffee, eyes skimming over the International section of the Tokyo Times.

"Absolutely not, Hitomisan!" my mother said as I slipped on my shoes by the door. "You cannot go to school this way! You're too sick!"

"Truly, Kaasan, I'm fine," I insisted, swaying as a dizzy spell overtook me. My cheeks were flushed with fever, but it wasn't cold outside. I would be okay as long as I wore a coat.

"Hitomisan…."

Behind me, my older brother, Seiji the second, watched me as I argued with our mother. When I glanced at him, I saw his violet eyes were filled with concern. I looked away quickly, because his stare made me feel guilty. Finally ready to leave, I turned to my mother. "Good bye, Okaasan!" I said firmly. "See you after school." Then I turned around and breezed past Seiji onto the walkway. Almost as soon as I was outside, my knees buckled beneath me and I fell to the ground.

"Imoutochan!" Seiji cried, rushing to my side. "Are you okay?!"

Before I could answer, I vomited all over the sidewalk. My older brother picked me up carefully, wiping the remnants away from my mouth with the sleeve of his school uniform. He carried me swiftly to my bed, laying me there with the utmost care before removing his jacket and placing it beside me. His warm, spicy scent comforted me and cleared my head a little. He kissed my forehead gently, resting his cool hand on my burning cheek.

"Rest, Hitomi-imoutochan," he whispered. Before he even left the room, I was asleep.

I awoke several hours later, with strong, midday sunlight pouring discriminately through my lowered blinds. I wore light green pajamas and a cool rag was pressed to my forehead. My mother sat in the rocking chair in the corner of my room, carefully working at darning a tear in my little sister's weekend jumper.

"Ah, Hitomisan," she murmured, looking up with a tense smile. "You're awake. Doctor Iwamouto should be arriving shortly."

I sighed. Doctor Iwamouto—not our family physician, but specifically _my_ physician. He was an immunologist, the one who had originally diagnosed my immunodeficiency. I didn't like him. He was the brother of Iwamoutosensei, who had been an untrustworthy teacher at Sarayashiki Junior High. I'd heard that he'd once framed a student (Yusuke Urameshi, coincidentally) for stealing an entire class's possessions, only to be found out when he had kept a very rare pen belonging to a student in his pocket for himself. Doctor Iwamouto was much kinder and gentler than _that_ Iwamouto, but I still felt skittish around him. Also, whenever he paid me a visit, it always meant a lengthy absence from school. I tried to sit up, but it hurt my head.

"Now, Hitomisan," Mother scolded, "don't push yourself. Just wait for the doctor to come."

I obeyed, falling back to sleep fairly quickly. I awoke for Doctor Iwamouto's visit, long enough for him to say it was just another of my bouts and to excuse me from two weeks of school. He always excused me for longer than I needed, but this was only because stress could push me back into being sick, so I had to wait until the virus was completely gone to go back. I didn't like it, but what choice did I have but to obey? After he left, I went back to sleep and slept through the day until my mother knocked on my door.

I sat up groggily, my head pounding. "Yes?"

"Hitomisan, there's a girl named Keiko Yukimura here to see you. Should I let her up?" I could hear the smile in Mother's voice. She must have thought that Keiko was a friend. She was familiar to me—our class rep, I think. I thought it over for a second, weighing my horrible appearance with my desire for company.

"Please do," I called hoarsely, taking a swig from the bottle of water someone had placed on my bedside table at some point in the day. Thankfully, I also found my brush there, and took the chance to run it frantically through my tangled, curly, violet hair. I put the brush down and fluffed my pillows so I could lean against them just in time for the door to my room to slide open. Keiko, a short, brown-haired girl with a kind look about her, entered shyly, pulling a stool up to my bed so she could sit with me.

"Good afternoon, Takeashisan," she said demurely, smiling shyly at me.

"Keikosan," I murmured, my soft voice made even softer by my headache, "you don't have to be so formal with me." I smiled. "Call me Hitomichan."

"Then you must call me Keikochan," she answered, grinning a wicked grin. "I came by because you weren't in school today. I was worried. You're so studious; I thought something must be wrong for you to stay home."

"You were right," I replied, closing my eyes. "But I fall ill very often. I am not the strongest, I'm afraid. But I'm very happy you visited me."

"It's no problem at all," the class rep insisted with an embarrassed smile. "It turns out your house is on the way home for me, so I thought I'd drop in with your homework and let you borrow my notes from today."

"That's very kind of you, Keikochan," I stated, wide-eyed at the act of friendship. "Thank you very much."

"Yusuke and Kuwabara were going to come, too," Keiko let me know. Her eyes fell disappointedly to her lap. "But they, um, got caught up in some work they had to do."

"You'll have to thank them for me anyway," I said with a tight smile. "I thought everyone in our class disliked me, but to know that the three of you don't seem to makes me very happy." Keiko smiled, too, placing a hand over mine.

"Honestly, you seem very nice," she told me, squeezing my hand in a friendly way. "I'm glad I never listen to the stupid rumors people spread. Then I would have missed out on meeting such a nice girl!"

Then, suddenly, my mother knocked on the door. "Miss Keiko, will you be staying for dinner?" she asked politely. Keiko checked her watch, then shook her head.

"Sorry, I have to get home to help my parents mind the store," she answered apologetically. "But I'll come back to see you tomorrow, Hitomichan. And I'll bring Yusuke and Kuwabara, too, I promise."

"Thank you very much, Keikochan," I said, bowing my head respectfully. She gave me a quick hug before running out of my room, past my mother. In the distance, I heard the front door open and close.

"Well, she seemed very sweet," Mother commented, placing a hand on her hip. "Hitomisan, you never mentioned having a friend." I smiled to myself, surprised myself. I hoped she really would come back tomorrow.


	2. Chapter One

**Strength Unbounded**

AU: *I do not own these characters or ideas, just the plot!* Some language notes in case you aren't familiar with Japanese family titles:

Kaasan/Okaasan – Mother

Niisan – Older brother

Imoutochan – Younger sister

**Chapter 1 – Discovering Truth**

Over the next two weeks, Keiko, Yusuke, and Kuwabara came to visit me every day. We usually sat around and talked. At first there was a lot of talking about me—they insisted that they be knowledgeable of me and my life—and then, I spent many afternoons just learning about them. Usually, Keiko would have to leave early to go and help her parents in their restaurant, and Yusuke and Kuwabara would stay and read me vulgar manga and regale me with epic tales of battles that couldn't have been possible, but I just enjoyed the creativity involved in their accounts of altercations of the spirit world. In time, I grew to love the three of them as my own siblings, and oftentimes, Seiji would sit in my room and pretend to read when my friends were there. He was very protective of me at first, and I knew he didn't really trust the boys, so he preferred to be nearby when they were around. He never said any of this to me, but he and I just understood each other.

The last night of my break, I was sitting in my room, finishing with copying Keiko's notes from that day in class. She and the boys had left quite some time ago, and the smells of Kaasan cooking teppan downstairs wafted up to me through my closed door. I paused for a moment, looking out my window with a dreamy expression on my face and blushing as I thought of the racy manga Yusuke had slipped under my pillow.

"Read it right before bed," he had suggested. "Let me know what you think."

I bit the end of my pencil, my teeth sinking sweetly into the rubber of the eraser. I hoped it wasn't an eighteen or older manga. He had given me one of those before, and I was so embarrassed when I looked at the cover that I hadn't even been able to open it. Keiko still didn't know about that incident. Sometimes, I thought there were things better left unsaid to Keiko.

I was still lost in my reverie when Seiji came in. I didn't notice him until he perched himself in my windowsill, his long limbs filling up the space and making him seem much taller than he was.

"Niisan," I said, dropping my pencil unceremoniously on the desk. "Did you need something?"

Seiji just studied my face, not deigning to answer just yet. I blushed, doing the same to him. Between us, there was no familial resemblence at all. Seiji was tall, rail thin, with perfect, shining, black hair and magnanimous, violet eyes that made him seem about ten years older than he was. His whole body exuded a cool, collectedness that I, myself, could never hope to possess. He was a born protector, and he had spent his life to date protecting me. The thought warmed me.

But if you looked at me, short, with long, untamably curly hair the color of Seiji's eyes and skin like the finest porcelain, the most you could say of me would be that I looked fragile. My own eyes, unnaturally large and very, very green, always seemed frozen in either fear or surprise, and outside of this, held a sort of sadness for which one couldn't quite nail down a cause. For this, I blamed my father, who had a rather somber visage. We all loved him for it, though, and my mother often commented that my eyes just went along with my temperament. My frame, though small, was proportional, and since entering high school I had sprouted curves to match my mother's bodacious form. Together, we were often told we were mirror images. The only true difference between us was that Mother's ears were pierced and she liked to wear lots of jewelry, where I was more of a purist. No, Seiji and I didn't look anything alike.

"Hitomi-imoutochan," Seiji finally began. He had a voice that was smooth and quiet, like an important man's voice. It made you hold your breath and will your heart to quiet, simply to hear him better. "You return to school tomorrow."

"Yes," I replied, standing and straightening my long, pleated skirt. Seiji turned away, a slight flush rising to his cheeks. I wondered why.

"Will you need me to walk with you?" he asked, seeming back to himself as I seated myself again on the bed. My cream-colored sweater stood out wonderfully against the deep purple of my waist-length hair, which hung freely over my shoulders on this day.

"Keiko was going to pick me up," I answered. "Besides, don't you have archery club in the mornings, Niisan?"

"Yes, but—"

"Don't worry about me." I smiled, cocking my head to the side. "You don't have to protect me all the time, Niisan."

Seiji looked at me bewilderedly for a moment. Then, after a long silence, he stood up suddenly, towering over me. "As you wish," he murmured, sweeping out of the room. I watched after him only for a second before standing and beginning to change into my night gown. How strangely for him to respond, I thought, but soon forgot it as I crawled into bed and fell asleep, excited for the day that was fast approaching.

-=--=---=----=-----=-----=----=---=--=-

The next morning, Keiko was five minutes late to pick me up, but she came with Yusuke in tow. "Sorry we're late," she cried as she came up to the door. "Yusuke wasn't up when I went to get him this morning."

"That's alright," I assured them, picking up my satchel and box lunch as I trotted down the walkway toward them. "It's not far. We'll still be on time."

"Great," Yusuke intoned, sarcasm dripping from his voice. I dropped back behind Keiko, holding out the manga he'd given me. He pocketed it surreptitiously, whispering behind his hand, "Was it good?"

"Very," I answered, conspiratorially glancing at Keiko. "I liked the part where the protagonist's strength increased because he thought his friend had died. Very inspiring."

"Tell me about it," Yusuke said, rolling his eyes. There was an odd edge to this comment, but he seemed to mean it. I wondered what it could mean, but before I could ask, Keiko told us to hurry. I smiled apologetically at Yusuke, running a few steps to catch up to my other friend. We met Kuwabara outside the gate and walked into class together. I met Kuwabara's friend Okubo, who seemed very kind-hearted, if a little dim. As I took my seat, the teacher whispered a "welcome back" to me right when the bell rang.

The day passed without much event. I talked with Keiko and the boys on our class breaks, and we ate lunch together on the roof. At the end of the day, Keiko had to go straight home, but Yusuke asked me if I wanted to go over to his house. I'd never been to a boy's house before, but was assured when he said that a friend from a different school would be there. At least I wouldn't be going alone.

"You coming, Kuwabara?" Yusuke asked. Kuwabara blushed, scratching the back of his head with a goofy grin.

"Well, Urameshi, any other day, you know I would," he hemmed, "but I, uh, have some stuff to take care of and I—"

"Goin' to see Yukina at Genkai's temple?" Yusuke inquired bluntly, an exasperated look coming across his face.

"What's it to you?!" Kuwabara snapped defensively, flushing a bright red color.

"Whoa, whoa, I never said it was anything at all," Yusuke replied nonchalantly. "Go see your girl. We'll see ya later."

We parted ways, Kuwabara heading toward the bus stop in a huff. I looked up at Yusuke, realizing this was the first time I had ever been alone with him. It was surprising to me that I wasn't uncomfortable.

"Who's Yukina?" I asked Yusuke as we walked toward his apartment at a leisurely pace. He looked at me from the corner of his warm, brown eyes like he hadn't expected the question.

"Aw, some girl we met once when we had to go out on a job." _Jobs_ were what they referred to their stories as. They always involved demons and apparitions and Reikai. Apparently they took these stories more seriously than I'd thought. "She lives with my old teacher at her temple on the hill now."

I said nothing, just mulled this over in my head as we walked. I wondered who this girl really was, why he didn't feel the need to really explain anything about her. I was sure it wasn't important, since Yusuke wasn't really the type to hide things. I tried to push the idea out of my mind as Yusuke let us into his apartment easily.

Inside, his friends were already there. One sat on the couch, wearing a magenta school uniform. He had startling green eyes very similar to my own and a shock of red hair that framed his fine, boyish face, giving him a very refined and beautiful air. He sat with his legs crossed, sipping hot tea.

Across the room, a boy only a little taller than me, dressed all in black with shockingly black, spiky hair stood by the window, looking out. He turned to look at us and I nearly gasped. His black hair had a pure white starburst in it around his forehead. He wore a white cloth on his forehead, making his scarlet eyes stand out even more against the whiteness of his skin. His had very angular features and an expression that read with contempt as well as angry curiosity.

He was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen.

"Who's the girl?" he asked Yusuke in a rough voice, without looking at me at all. "She looks like—"

"I don't think we need to mention that just yet, Hiei," the redhead interrupted, standing slowly. He came forward, smiling almost demurely at me. "My name is Shuichi Minamino. Friends call me Kurama."

"And the tiny bundle of rudeness by the window is Hiei," Yusuke added, throwing his school bag down. "I swear, sometimes you are worse than the idiots my mom brings home, Hiei."

The dark-haired wonder didn't respond. Instead, he turned and glared out the window. My heart beat very quickly and I couldn't remove my eyes from him. Then, suddenly, I was hit with a very strong dizzy spell. I felt a sense I had never felt before, like tendrils of something or someone I didn't know were wrapping around my throat and choking me. I dropped to my knees, feeling weak. _Again?! _I thought as Yusuke rushed to my side.

"Hitomi!"


	3. Chapter Two

**Strength Unbounded**

AU: *I do not own these characters or ideas, just the plot!* Sorry that it's taking so long to get into the thick of the plot I mentioned in my summary (if you're reading). All will become clear soon!

**Chapter 2 – An Unlikely Truth**

"_Ah! Give it back!"_

_I am surrounded. Boys from my class are laughing, prodding at me as they toss my satchel between them. It is brand new, its shining silver buckles sparkling starkly against the black leather. I let out a stifled cry as the satchel hits the ground, its leather scuffing. I lunge for it, but two of the boys come together, their girth blocking me from my goal, and shove me back against the pavement. A filthy scrape opens on my elbow, bringing tears to my kelly green eyes. One of the boys stoops and picks up my satchel, leering at it in a way that made me want to hit him._

"_Look at how red she gets," he crows, "Takeashichan." The other boys howl with laughter, though I do not get the joke. I feel my cheeks burn an even brighter red than before._

"_S-Stop it Tokikun!" I yell, my voice breaking. "Give me my new s-s-satchel back!"_

"_But we're having so much fun," Toki responds, slamming my satchel back onto the ground. I watch in wide-eyed horror as he drags it over the sidewalk, gauging the leather and scratching the buckles. "Aren't we, Tomichan?"_

"_What are you doing to her?!"_

_I look up to see Seiji, sitting on his bike on the far side of the circle that had formed around me. His eyes were wide with surprise, but angry, too. He still wore the uniform for soccer club, and I could see that his backpack was gravid with text books and his personal ball._

"_Nothing," Toki answers slyly, holding my satchel out toward my older brother. Seiji's face twists with a combination of rage and disbelief. "Tomichan and me were just playing. Ne, Tomichan?"_

_I splutter out a sob, nursing my scraped elbow as I gaze helplessly up at Toki. _Why? _I think, perhaps pointlessly. I had a crush on Tokikun, up to now. The gleeful look on his face at my anguish was not only disappointing, but frightening. Suddenly, Seiji jumps off his bike, letting it crash to the ground as he runs at Toki. As his fist connects with the side of Toki's face, my satchel again falls to the ground._

"_Aw, man, this guy's crazy!" one of Toki's friends yells. "Let's get outta here!"_

_Murmuring sounds of agreement, Toki's friends all run off, leaving Toki alone, standing between Seiji and me as he nurses his new bruise. "What the hell?" he says, spitting out some blood. It lands like a spider web on the pavement beside me. "I told you, we were just playing."_

"_No one makes Hitomi cry," Seiji answers menacingly. "Now, I suggest you go home."_

_Toki glares at Seiji for a moment before looking back at me with something like regret or yearning in his dark eyes. I look up at him tearfully and offer an apologetic smile. He makes a disgusted noise and turns away from me. "Fine. Keep her." Before I can even get to my knees, he is gone._

"_It's okay, Hitomi-imoutochan," Seiji murmurs, kneeling and taking me into his arms. My tears wet his team shirt, but he doesn't seem to notice. "Hitomi…."_

--=---=----=-----=-----=----=---=--

"Hitomi…."

Everything around me was black, with dim light coming in around the edges. How was I supposed to get out of there?

"Hitomi!"

Slowly, a brightly lit room came into focus. The walls were white, and the bed beneath me was soft and warm. Beside me sat a tall boy dressed all in a pretty green, looking at me with an expression of intense worry. Like that, he reminded me of Seiji.

"Yu….suke….?" I tried to sit up, but was met with another intense dizzy spell. The sensation I'd had moments before I'd blacked out, of being choked by some sensation—I realized now it was a smell—had not faded, but I supposed I was growing used to it. Yusuke slumped over, seemingly relieved.

"Hey, guys, she's awake!" he yelled over his shoulder. I pushed myself into a seated position, remembering now what had happened. I was in Yusuke's apartment. I had met two of his friends and then, overcome by some bizarre sensation (one involving a scent of some sort), I had passed out. The two in question entered the room, which I assumed to be Yusuke's bedroom. The redhead, who had introduced himself as Kurama, came to the bedside. The shorter one, Hiei, stayed further back, in the corner. I was sort of glad he did; as he moved closer, the smell grew stronger. Though it wasn't an unpleasant smell, it made my stomach turn. Thankfully, Kurama smelled more like a greenhouse. His calming scent somewhat dispelled the effect of Hiei's odor.

"Glad to see you're all right, Miss Takeashi," the redhead said with a smile, kneeling beside Yusuke. "Yusuke explained that you're prone to illness. Have you had this sensation before?"

"Thank you for your concern," I responded quietly, sparing only the most furtive of glances at Hiei. "And please, you must call me Hitomi. But no, I can't say I've ever felt this way before."

"What?!" Yusuke jumped to his feet. "Hitomi! Do you want me to call your brother? Or your parents, maybe?"

I held out my hand. "That's not necessary at all!" I looked over at Hiei. "Just….certain company seems to be affecting my senses."

"Hn," the short one grunted.

"Hiei's affecting you?" Kurama asked, seeming intrigued. His eyes (that were eerily like my own) turned to his companion, narrowing thoughtfully. "In what way?"

I shrugged, breathing in shallowly. "It's like….a smell, but not," I tried to explain, gesturing widely with my hands. "Like I'm sensing something about him….tangibly. I don't know. I don't understand it." Kurama and Yusuke exchanged concerned looks as Hiei eyed me suspiciously. I sighed, leaning back against the soft pillow as I tried to make sense of what was going on. The boys withdrew from me, standing a few feet away and whispering to each other. I caught a few odd words that made no sense, including "Reikai," "Koenma," and "Makai." These were terms I had heard in Yusuke and Kuwabara's retellings of their "jobs," but could they really take such a shenanigan this far?

Suddenly, Hiei pulled violently away from the other boys. "That theory is completely ridiculous!" he shouted vehemently. "And no, I won't! I should kill you for even suggest such a ludicrous thing!"

"Hiei, please be reasonable," Kurama suggested calmly, as though dealing with a child throwing a temper tantrum. Yusuke just shook his head. I assumed they were used to these kinds of outbursts from him.

"It's a _human_," Hiei seethed, "a filthy, stinking _human_, and no amount of coaxing could ever get me to carry it anywhere, _especially_ not to that damned baby's office in the spirit world!" I tilted my head to the side, internalizing every word, wondering what being human had to do with anything. Weren't we all human?

"Well, Hiei, you say that she stinks to you," Kurama reasoned, his voice smooth as silk as he crossed his arms with a sense of finality. "Apparently, your own odor is offensive to her. I know you don't care, but what would you have to say about that. A human thinks that _you_ stink." This statement seemed to sink in deeper than either party had anticipated. Slowly, Hiei turned bewildered, disgusted, scarlet eyes on me. I blushed, looking away, jumping when Yusuke burst out into vulgar, boisterous laughter.

"What do you make of that, Hiei?!" he taunted, pointing and doubling over with mirth in utter poor taste. "A _human_ says _you_ need to go take a dip in a lake!" Yusuke, even more tickled by his own joke, dissolved into even more giggles. Hiei stepped toward him, his hands moving expertly to his hip. For the first time, I noticed a sword in its sheath resting there, and apparently ready for action.

"Don't think I won't fight you again, you bastard," he growled, only somewhat sated when Kurama touched his shoulder gently. The pair exchanged long glances before Hiei stepped away, much more lucid than before. "Fine," he finally relented. "I'll take it to see the toddler."

"You won't regret it, Hiei," Kurama said with a tiny, victorious smile. Hiei snorted, glaring at me in a way that screamed of contempt.

"Only because I have no regrets, fox," he quipped, moving closer to the bed. I gasped and held my breath, my eyes watering as he came near. The sensation was even stronger now, inescapable by any means. I began to feel light-headed as he threaded himself between my arms and legs and managed to hoist me up onto his back with relatively no effort.

"We'll meet you there, Hiei," Kurama suggested, reaching into his hair. Hiei turned, so I didn't see what he pulled from there. Yusuke grinned at me.

"Don't worry," he assured me, "you can trust him, no matter what he says. Don't let the baby start without us!"

"Wha—Yusuke—!" But it was too late. Hiei began running, and suddenly, everything disappeared from view. We were moving impossibly quickly. My stomach turned and I felt my mind blackening in some areas, but I couldn't close my eyes. My heart beat very quickly, and for the briefest of moments, I thought I could feel Hiei's heartbeat, too. The wild ride, thankfully, ended pretty quickly, in front of a huge gate. It opened for us, and Hiei set me down, seeming all too happy to do so.

"Stay close, human," he suggested. "Wouldn't want to get lost." Obeying, I stepped closer, almost placing a hand on his shoulder before deciding against it. Beyond the door, I could feel more of the same feeling I got from Hiei, with a slightly different flavor. What was I getting into?


	4. Chapter Three

**Strength Unbounded**

AU: *I do not own these characters or ideas, just the plot!* Finally, we get into the main plot. Forgive me; this chapter begins in Koenma's perspective before switching back to the first-person perspective of Hitomi. Also, I apologize to those of you who have added this story to your alert lists, since it's been so long since I updated. I hope it's good!

**Chapter 3 – And the Fates Said….**

[ k o e n m a ]

"Koenma Sir, have you made any progress on that project King Enma gave you?"

At his desk, the prince of the spirit world clenched his chubby, little fists. Of all the existences in the entire universe, Prince Enma, Jr., figured his had to be one of the hardest (and most certainly the lengthiest). His father put far too much store in him as the future leader of Reikai, and it was horribly taxing on his nerves. And, of course, the tagline of "Koenma" ("Little Enma") didn't help.

The little prince turned blazing brown eyes on his assistant, Jorge the oni, who had asked the question. The blue-skinned apparition paled under his gaze, giving him the complexion of cotton candy. When Koenma spoke, he spoke in a slow, quiet voice with a somber, rueful expression.

"Look at all this paperwork," he admonished, gnawing on his bulbous, blue pacifier. "Do you really think I have the time for such a pithy task?"

"B-B-But Koenma Sir!" Jorge insisted, sweat gleaming at the base of his horn. "Your father declared this project spirit world's number one priority!"

Koenma couldn't suppress a strangled sound of surprise. "What?! When did he do that?!" Of course, the project in question was the appointment of a new spirit detective. Yusuke Urameshi, the previous Reikai tantei, had retired his activity as spirit detective after the defeat of Sensui, inheriting his ancestor Raizen's land in demon world and choosing to reign from his home in the living world. Naturally, a new tantei would need to be appointed, but with no immediate spirit world concerns, the task had fallen by the wayside.

Koenma felt his cheeks flush as he mulled all of this over, only slightly calmer than a moment before. The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed that his father would even do such a thing as to put a rush on this. Finding a living human with enough spiritual hardiness and potential alone was a long, grueling, and often fruitless task. Even once Koenma pored through the library of fate and found the answer, nothing guaranteed that the next tantei had even been born yet. In that case, the prince would have to wait fifty years or more for that fated one to be born and wizen to an age of understanding and spiritual peak. How could it possibly be rushed? Koenma swallowed hard, knowing this could only mean one thing.

"Dad knows something I don't!" Koenma wailed, feeling ignorant and powerless.

"N-N-Now, Koenma Sir," Jorge stammered consolingly, "it's a busy time of year for you! You haven't had much time for reading."

"That's very true," Koenma agreed, suddenly composed. Jorge gaped in disbelief at Koenma's bipolarity, but the little prince pretended not to notice. The oni went on slowly, probably trying not to shatter his boss's fragile state of content.

"But not to worry, Sir!" he cried, seeming proud of himself. "I did all the necessary reading for you and discovered that the new tantei is none other than this young lady!" Pressing a button, the oni brought up a picture on Koenma's office screen. The prince leaned forward to get a better look. She was petite, he thought, probably about the same size as Hiei. Her milky white complexion was offset by her wild, curly, violet hair.

"Is that natural?" Koenma asked, rubbing his eyes as he observed her exotic mane. Jorge the oni nodded solemnly.

"The unsettling green of her eyes makes me think of Kurama, Sir."

"What? Her eyes?" Come to think of it, it was true. Koenma had been so enthralled by her hair that he hadn't noticed before. The little prince leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowed. He was in business mode. "Jorge, we'll need to get Botan in here to investigate her past and character, also to check her future and see how we ought to meet this little lady."

"Already done, Sir!"

"Whaaaat?!" Koenma blinked a few times, regaining his composure enough to take the hand-bound report being handed to him. He read quickly through it, discovering that she lived in Sarayashiki and even went to school with Yusuke. He wondered briefly if they knew each other, but this thought was immediately obliterated as he read the next part. He yelped with anger and surprise, shoving the now-wrinkled report in Jorge's face.

"What is the meaning of this part?!" he demanded. Jorge gulped, reading the indicated section aloud.

"'Hitomi Takeashi, sixteen, had suffered a severe, incurable immunodeficiency from a very young age,'" he read, following the words across the page with his finger. "'She falls ill often and is generally fragile and weak, so she never participates in gym class unless it is swimming. Doctor Iwamouto calls her condition _impossible to diagnose._ He is her regular physician.'"

"The Reikai tantei must be strong! Hardy!" Koenma looked as though he might pass out, his shrill voice echoing off the walls unpleasantly. "She won't even make it through training, let alone a mission! How could fate turn out a spirit detective like this?!"

Another oni, pink-skinned with only two teeth, sprinted into the room before Jorge was able to comment. "Koenma Sir! Mister Hiei is here….and he brought a human girl with him!"

"Waaaah! That's got to be her!" Koenma turned to Jorge, purple-faced with both rage and panic. "You arranged this, didn't you?!"

"N-No!" Jorge backpedalled. "I swear, I know nothing abou--!"

"SHUT UP!" Koenma screamed at him. Turning to the pink oni, he yelled, "Send them in! And get Botan up here!"

As the pink oni retreated, Koenma gnawed on his pacifier so hard, he chewed a hole in it. What was he going to do?

"There goes my raise," Jorge muttered sullenly. "And I worked so hard, too…."

Usually, Koenma might have had some witty rejoinder for this, but today he came up short. Oh, what was he going to do?!

[ h I t o m I ]

"H-Hiei?"

I looked at him with a certain amount of fear. He looked at me with detest and something like apathy, defecting to hate.

"Hn." He walked casually through the giant gateway that had just opened up for us. I was quick to follow, staying as close as I could without warranting a disgusted sidelong glance from my guide. The entry corridor was large, dark, and very empty. I felt tiny inside of it, but Hiei seemed unaffected.

After a long, silent walk, the dark corridor suddenly opened into a bright, busy, chaotic room. My eyes widened as I tried to take it in, but the sight that met my eyes was almost more than I could handle, not to mention the stink. I held my breath, only daring to take very shallow breaths through my mouth. I could still taste their odor, though.

The room was stark, and it was filled with so many bodies rushing around and yelling frantically at each other that I could hardly tell we were confined to a room at all. There were no people in the sense that we know them as. They were all oni, like the monstrous demons and apparitions from my pictures books that my parents had read to me as a child. They came in all different colors, most of them some shade of red or blue. The all had horns, too, and comical, cartoonish voices that made my heart beat faster as they called out to each other. It was like an otherworldly stock exchange. I felt like I was going to faint.

Hiei must have been able to see the wobble in my knees, because he shoved me ahead of him. "Move it," he grunted unceremoniously. "I just gotta get you to that brat's office and then I can get outta this hell-hole." I had no idea what he meant or why we were even in this bizarre place. Hiei pushed me more quickly than I thought I could move across the strange exchange and into another dim, quiet corridor to a large set of doors. He knocked once, hard, and stepped back. I turned and looked at him, head cocked to the side curiously. He glared at me, his face slowly twisting as I didn't look away.

"The fox and Urameshi should be here soon," he said brashly, stepping away. "My task is done." Then, before my very eyes, he disappeared. I had no time to look for him though, because a blue oni stepped into the hallway.

"Miss Takeashi?" he questioned. I turned, blushing, and nodded. "This way please."

I followed him into a cavernous office filled with stacks of paperwork, all marked with sticky notes saying, "in." At the very back of the office was a huge desk with a large stack of papers on the left in a box that read "in" and a much smaller pile in a box reading, "out." I was led right up to the desk, where there was a large swivel chair like there was in _The Godfather_. I gulped, suddenly feeling afraid of whoever sat in that chair. I tensed up, expecting the worst. The chair spun around, and I closed my eyes, not knowing what to expect.

"Hitomi Takeashi." Slowly, I opened my eyes to acknowledge the speaker and found that no one sat opposite me. I looked around, finding only the blue oni that had led me in.

"D-Did you say my name?" I asked shyly, feeling my face flush.

"Hey! I take offense to that!" the disembodied voice whined. "Look down here, wouldja?!"

I obeyed, finding a small child sitting in the chair. I smiled, relieved. "Oh, you're so cute!" I cried, swooping down on him, reaching to pick him up. The child pulled away suddenly with a yelp, falling out of his chair. His head made a dull thud when it smacked against the checked linoleum floor. I cried out, rushing to his side to help him up.

"Don't!" the little boy cried, his teeth gnashing on the gigantic, blue pacifier in his mouth. His big, brown eyes were wide with rage. "The prince of the spirit world, and I can't even get any respect!"

"P-Prince?" I gasped, moving away. "Sp-Spirit world? Is that where I am?"

The little boy looked at me wide-eyed, stopping suddenly in the middle of his endeavor to climb back into his chair. Looking at the blue oni, he said in an incredulous tone, "Yusuke didn't tell her anything!"

"It was all true?!" I suddenly burst out, falling to my knees in disbelief. Just at that moment, I heard footsteps behind me.

"Hitomi!" Yusuke rushed to my side, followed closely by Kurama. "Are you alright? Where did Hiei go?"

"I'm certain he would have left by now," Kurama reasoned. "After all, he never agreed to stay with Hitomi…."

"H-Hello, Yusuke," I stammered, trying to gather myself. I forced myself to take a deep breath, finding this smell didn't burn my insides as badly as Hiei's did. I allowed myself to be helped to my feet and into a chair as the baby boy—the prince of the spirit world?—skittered around me, mumbling things entirely too quickly for me to catch them. Yusuke finally blocked his path, glaring down at him solemnly.

"Koenma, what happened?" he demanded, bending down to grab the boy and place him on the desk. Koenma stood there, flushed and frustrated.

"Nothing!" he shouted. "She fell over like that after I introduced myself. You didn't tell her anything before bringing her here?!"

"Of course I did!" Yusuke yelled back. "I'm not some garden-variety idiot! She's heard everything about me and Kuwabara and everything we did as the tantei!"

"So why didn't she know me or Hiei….?" Kurama wondered. Koenma took the same pondering stature as the redhead.

"Yes, Yusuke, and why was she so shocked when she came here?" In the background, the blue oni shifted around uncomfortably. "There's a contradiction in your story here…."

"Oopsie! Not quite, Sir!"

Every head turned suddenly to the door of the office. There stood a tall, lean, blue-haired beauty wearing a pink yukata. She smiled at me, tilting her head to the side. "Nice to meetcha, Miss Hitomi!" She swept further into the office, going to stand by Koenma's desk. "She simply thought the stories were tall tales told by high school boys to make her feel better when she was sick. She didn't believe the stories. And Yusuke and Kuwabara were fine with that because they didn't think she needed to know it. That's also why they hid some of the more intense bits from her knowledge."

"Botan!" Yusuke exclaimed, grinning victoriously. "This might be one of the few times I'm happy to see you!"

Botan glared at Yusuke. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Um, excuse me," I broke in, "but who is Botan? How does she know what I thought about Yusuke's stories? And most importantly, why am I here?"

"I'll field that," Prince Koenma volunteered. "You are not an ordinary living human, Hitomi. You are, in fact, the next Reikai tantei. The fate proclaimed spirit detective, protector of all."

"Except demons," Yusuke amended seriously. I blinked, trying to absorb what was just said. All of Yusuke's stories about his jobs had been….truth? And there was even more to them than I knew? And I was supposed to do things like that, too?

"Oh, don't look so shocked, silly," Botan declared with an absurd giggle. "You were brought here because of your new sense, weren't you? Because you could sense Hiei's demonic aura and you passed out?" The blue-haired wonder took a small book out of the folds of her yukata, flipping through it. "Yes, that's correct."

"My new sense…?" I repeated dumbly. "So Hiei smells like that because he's a demon?"

"And a powerful one," Kurama answered magnanimously. His eyes were closed as he thought. "His powerful aura was probably what broke through that wall in your mind keeping you from exercising this sense. You probably have the same type of thing going on here, to a much lesser degree and with a different flavor, because there are only apparitions and oni here, whose auras are different from those of demons."

That did explain my sense at the entrance. I was beginning to get a headache from the flurry of information. Yusuke laughed, placing a brotherly hand on my shoulder.

"Wow, I had no idea you were the next tantei!" he cried, as though proud. "That's really awesome though. I had no idea you had it in you."

"I…. I don't!" I finally cried, breaking the reverie that seemed to be surrounding everyone. "I'm not strong enough to do something like that! I've never even worked physically hard a day in my life! How am I supposed to do this?!"

"We know that about you, Hitomi," Koenma said solemnly, giving me a calming look. "I didn't understand it at first either. But I've come to the conclusion that you must have the spiritual potential to become strong and you may already be spiritually hardy."

"Spiritually….hardy?" I still couldn't believe it or understand, but I decided to play along anyway. "So what do we do now?"

"Easy!" Yusuke cried, taking me by the hand and pulling me out of the chair. "We go see the old lady!"

"O-Old lady….?"

"To Genkai's temple," proclaimed Kurama in a stately manner, following as Yusuke pulled me out the door. As I looked back, Koenma, Botan, and the blue oni were all waving a sly good bye.

_But I never heard who she was…._


End file.
